A DUP MP has said the only difference between the Islamic State and the IRA is the scale of the two terrorist organisations.

Upper Bann MP David Simpson was commenting after a Catholic Cardinal sparked controversy when he said Islamic State was a distortion of "genuine" Islam in the same way the Provisional IRA was a "perversion" of Catholicism.

Speaking to CNN, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is based in New York, said: "The IRA claimed to be Catholic. They were baptised. They had a Catholic identity. What they were doing was a perversion of everything the Church stood for."

MP David Simpson agreed with the Cardinal saying "terrorism of 2015 is the same as terrorism of 1975".

"Condemnation of the barbarism perpetrated by the so-called Islamic State has rightly been universal. However, some people in Northern Ireland are uncomfortable when a light is shone on their very similar actions during the Troubles. They seek to justify their brutal crimes by saying it was for an honourable cause. This is complete folly. Terrorism of any hue was never justified," he said.

Drawing comparisons between the two, Mr Simpson said: "Islamic State has forcibly wiped out the Christian population in many cities within the Middle East. The only difference between that and the IRA's actions in isolated rural communities along the border is one of scale."

Some relatives of IRA victims backed the cardinal's comments. Ann Travers - the sister of Mary who was murdered by the IRA in 1984 - said: "The only difference is that we have social media which can show everyone the true horrors and instil fear.

"There is no difference to putting a firebomb in a hotel to setting someone on fire in a cage."

But former Sinn Fein spokesman and republican prisoner Danny Morrison strongly rejected the comparison as "ignorant" and "absolutely wrong".

Mr Morrison said: "There are massive differences, ideological and in terms of the IRA having been an indigenous organisation with clear aims, a historic organisation, an organisation which, yes, used force in conflict."